It’s Go Time! … Penguins at Rangers

Ya boys come in on a one-game winning streak, albeit a win in one of those gimmicky things they sometimes hold after the hockey portion of the evening is over. They are 1-3-1 on the nine-game homestand so far.

Dylan McIlrath comes out of the lineup tonight as Alain Vigneault goes back to the more standard 12 forwards, six defensemen lineup. Arron Asham, the ex-Penguin (and ex-pretty-much everything) replaced McIlrath in the lineup. Taylor Pyatt is prucha’d with McIlrath.

A nice side story is Rangers assistant Ulf Samuelsson, a former Ranger and former Penguin, coaching against his son Philip, who made his NHL debut for Pittsburgh last night.

The Penguins come in on a four-game winning streak, and with nine wins in their last 10 games. But they are missing some key players. Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik, Paul Martin, Rob Scuderi, Tomas Vokoun, Beau Bennett and Tanner Glass (all injured) plus James Neal and Deryk Engelland (both suspended), are missing tonight.

Have no fear, though, because Sidney Crosby is playing, which means the usual NBC Sports love-fest, plus all the rivalry-night b.s. going back to Adam Graves and Mario Lemieux, etc., and John Tortorella calling the Penguins an arrogant organization. Again.

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Don’t forget to vote for the Three Rangers Stars in the poll on the left.

Rick Carpiniello, 26, was born and raised in Harrison and began working in The Journal News' sports department (back when it was The Reporter Dispatch and eight other newspapers) in October of 1977 after a year of covering high school sports as a stringer. In 1978 he began covering the New York Rangers and the National Hockey League. Carpiniello has been writing columns on everything from local sports to the big leagues since 2002.